1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a print control apparatus and method for use in printing that employs a continuous sheet.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is an apparatus of printing images on both sides of a continuous sheet, such as a roll of paper, by printing data on a single side of the continuous sheet introduced to a print unit, cutting the continuous sheet, temporarily winding the cut continuous sheet, reintroducing the cut continuous sheet to the print unit, and printing data on the opposite side (see, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-249346). For such a printing apparatus, to enhance the efficiency of printing, images of a plurality of pages are successively printed on a single side, and after the completion of printing the images of all pages on the single side, an image is printed on the opposite side.
For printing with such a procedure, the sequence of pages is determined such that the printing sequence is the above-described sequence. The printed sheet with the image formed on both sides is cut by a cutter into sheets, and the sheets are stacked in succession with their front sides facing downward (face-down discharged). In contrast, for printing on only a single side of a sheet, because it is not necessary to perform printing on the back side of the sheet, the printed sheet with the images formed on its front side is cut by a cutter into sheets, and the sheets are stacked in succession with their front sides facing upward (face-up discharged).
Accordingly, for printing of a continuous sheet in such a way, simplex printing and duplex printing have different sequences of sheets arranged. This complicates checking the printed sheets when a user collects them.